Right. I think my apologies are getting a bit old, and if you think about it, I'm pretty good at updating compared to some other people. There, passed the guilt off pretty well, then. Well, the point is, I was working on the sequel for a while and got really far—inspired me to update this one. You see, I've been putting off finishing this story because then I'd have to work even harder on the sequel. But I guess procrastinating always has to come to an end at some point.
J.S.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: The Fab Four Reunited...One Last Time
Voldemort's aloof calm disappeared as he eyed Luka with loathing. "You'll never get away with this!" Voldemort screamed and in one fluid motion shot the Avada Keverda curse at Luka. He ducked with ease. "I will destroy you, Luka! Reducto!"
"Protego!" Luka countered fiercely. "Not likely," he said as he brought his wand up. "There are several things that I've predicted, although Seer blood in my family runs rare, and they all end up happening. You destroying me isn't very high up on the list." He put on a mystical air as he watched Voldemort circle around him. "However, I do predict that you'll never call me a mudblood again! Scourgify!" Voldemort countered Luka's spell with a wave of his wand, never even bothering to mutter the incantation.
"I'll call you what I want," Voldemort retorted. No one intervened with their duel; it was a much a magic duel as it was one with words. "You can't make me do anything!" With a wild sweep of his wand, Voldemort shouted, "Imper..." Luka was ready before Voldemort so much as brought his wand down.
"Rictusempra!" he cried, and watched with boyish mirth as Voldemort collapsed to the floor, tickled mirthlessly. Luka's followers broke into loud laughter and Luka bowed. "You know nothing," he said softly. "You are flightless in a winged world, Voldemort. Perhaps I was over cautious with my plan. It does seem to me now that I thought I was dealing with a man who was well beyond your ability." Luka sighed comically. "Oh well." He took a good look at Voldemort, who was still twisting on the floor. Carefully, Luka lifted his wand and Voldemort lay still. Luka chuckled to himself and continued his speech. "Do you really think I would let you escape when you so nicely abided all my requests and fell into my trap? I would be a fool if that were so."
"You're a fool nonetheless," Voldemort countered, standing up and brushing the dirt off his robes. He turned to leave, motioning his followers to do the same. "You've cheated me once, Luka, and you will never do it again." Luka disappeared, then reappeared in front of Voldemort's band.
"Is that so?" he said, looking mildly amused. "Are you one to walk away? You are funny, you know, Voldemort. Very funny. You know, one wouldn't think that the Dark Lord would just walk away after being so nicely ridiculed in front of everyone." Voldemort fumed and tried to push past Luka.
"I have forgiven you," he spat. Luka caught his arm and flung him back towards the Death Eaters. "What do you want?" Luka's lip curled and his eye flashed.
"That scared of me now, are you?" he queried. "Well. If you're that scared of a wizard as corrupt and handicapped as myself, no wonder you try to get rid of people more normal. They scare both of us," Luka laughed. "But I'll tell you something, Voldemort," he whispered, leaning towards the Dark Lord. "Nobody has risen over me yet, so don't feel bad." Voldemort came to an abrupt halt before him. "I won't flatter myself by boasting that I'm as great a wizard as even Dumbledore. No, lies don't work in the real world. Facts do, though. And the fact of the matter is...I am."
"Enough with you're attempts to engage me!" Voldemort ordered. "I'm through with you, your ilk, and all of Australia!"
"Australia is mine, I think we can agree to that, but I am in no way done with you." Luka circled around Voldemort as a wolf would its injured prey. "I am not one for competition, Voldemort. I despise those who believe to be what they aren't." The deformed man laughed wickedly, cold eyes squinting with malice. "That is what I'm cleansing the world of, you Dark Lord."
Voldemort pretended not to understand. "What you say makes no sense, Luka," he breathed. "The Muggles in Britain make more sense than you."
"Perhaps they do, Voldemort," Luka allowed, suddenly somber. "I couldn't tell. Opinion, after all, is what shapes the world. Without it, we would have no morals, no right or wrong. We would be lost, confused, unable to escape our own conflicting minds." Luka lazily closed his eyes and breathed deeply. When he refocused on the Dark Lord, his eyes were fiery.
"You think that your Slytherin is a cause worth fighting for," he began slowly. Voldemort's eyes narrowed at the mention of his ancestor. "Forgive me ahead of time for railing your motives. But I know I'm right.
"You kill Muggles because they're Muggles, don't you? You kill Mudbloods because they're contaminating your precious wizarding world." Luka laughed richly as though Voldemort was committing a childish crime. Luka motioned to himself. "I kill Muggles because they're confused. They think they know how everything should work. They believe that they are the ending result of all evolution." Voldemort listened to Luka's monologue stonily. "But they aren't. Hadn't Blaise Pascal warned them about it? Did he not write Man and the Universe specifically to warn the Muggles?"
"Unlike you," Voldemort growled, cutting in, "I do not go out of my way to learn Muggle ideas..."
"You are no different from any of the Muggles that you destroy," Luka whispered quietly. "Like them, you have this false vision lodged in your head that you, the oh great and powerful Voldemort, should be able to deal death and life to those you choose." Voldemort opened his mouth to object. Luka turned on him quickly, wand once again extended. "Say nothing!" Luka half-heartedly lowered his wand, preoccupied with something else.
"You are contradicting yourself if you dislike people such as myself..." Voldemort began.
"No," Luka countered, "you see, I'm not. I am not disillusioned by the world. I see it for what it is completely." Voldemort stood in brooding silence, apparently torn between listening to Luka's rhetoric and fleeing. "I am only what I appear to be."
"Mudblood," Voldemort cursed under his breath. "You will never be understood by those who you haven't corrupted." The tall Dark Lord brushed past Luka easily.
Luka's calm disappeared immediately as his keen ears heard the curse. "I'm not through with you, Voldemort," he hissed, seething. His scholarly tone had vanished. With a wave of his wand, Luka disappered, only to reappear blocking Voldemort's path to freedom. "You will leave this hall over my dead body."
Voldemort drew his wand. "Your death can be arranged," the red-eyed lord said. Behind him, all his followers unsheathed their wands. Erin might have laughed if her captor hadn't such a tight grip over her mouth. Something about two evil men fighting over something only one of them knew about amused her.
Luka grinned insanely. "I hoped you would say that." He thrust his wand into the air and the candlelight began to flicker. Just as it had been almost a year ago, the room exploded into darkness and the air started to be vacuumed from the room. Erin struggled in her captor's arms, fighting not only to free herself, but also to breathe. Voldemort looked startled, and Luka unaffected. The air screamed in Erin's ears as the pressure built. Suddenly, although this time Erin was ready for it, the room was enveloped with rich red light. Air returned as the eerie off-yellow ghosts of Luka's victims poured from the central fireplace; there were quite a bit more of them this time. Within minutes, they had surrounded both Voldemort and his followers. Luka stood clear of the crowd, still able to see his captive through the translucent bodies.
Voldemort spun in a circle, wand held out before him. At first, he tested a few banishing spells, but nothing worked. His spells grew more dangerous. When he tried killing the ghosts, Luka laughed and walked through the transparent bodies.
"Stop that," he said, as though the whole thing was a game. "Stop it or you'll actually kill someone." He snorted. "Not to mention, trying to kill a ghost won't really work...You see, they're dead already. No point in trying to kill them again." Voldemort fumed, but stood silent. "There that's better. Now, I could conjure up some chairs and we could all sit down to tea. What do you say? I only need to entertain you until I can think of a better thing to do." Luka paused as Voldemort's face turned from pale pink to a horrid shade of scarlet. "Although I daresay I'm the one who's entertained."
The trio, Snape, Tonks, and Lupin, stopped as they came to an elegantly carved, tall door. They could hear muffled talking. "They're in there," Lupin whispered.
Snape squinted, not convinced. "There's hardly enough sound coming from that room to make an echo in my dungeon at Hogwarts," he drawled. "I thought both the Dark Lord and Luka were in there. This peace couldn't ensue if they were really both in the same room."
"No, Severus, he's right," Tonks agreed. "That's where they are." The three of them exchanged worried glances. "So, what do we do?"
"Well, we can't barge in there expecting a welcome party," Lupin said reasonably.
Snape shot him a dark look. "Shut up, Lupin, unless you have something useful to say." Snape snapped. "Why are we even doing this?"
Tonks stared at him in amazement. "We've got to rescue Erin," she cried urgently, although not loudly. "We can't leave her in there...They'll kill her!"
"That's the idea," Snape mumbled.
Lupin had him by the shirt collar in an instant. "We're going in there, you coward," Lupin hissed, sliding Snape up the wall so that Snape's feet no longer touched the ground. "You and your sadistic ways, Severus. Some people actually care for others. There are people who want a reason to hope." He dropped Severus suddenly, looking nervous. "I say we chameleon ourselves and go on in." Snape rubbed his neck, shooting daggers Lupin's way.
"Sounds fine," Tonks replied. Nodding, Lupin waved his wand and watched at the two people in front of him, and himself, fade into their surroundings. "All ready?" Tonks asked.
"I'll go on in," Lupin whispered, and opened the heavy door. The three of them slipped in, and saw that everyone in the entire audience hall was looking at them. Or, rather, looking past them.
A man with long, red hair stared at the open door and scowled. "Cevin close the door," he ordered. A very tall man concealed in a thick, black cloak, moved forward to close the door. Lupin, Tonks, and Snape dodged out of his way. "Good. Now, as I was saying, Voldemort..." Luka drifted off into conversation with the Dark Lord. For the first time, Snape was able to get a good look of the room. This sight amazed him.
A medium sized group of black figures lined one end of the room. Each had a blue and silver crest sewed onto the back of their cloaks. Harrow moved back into their ranks. Luka's followers, Snape thought. But then, where are the Dark Lord's...Snape spotted his comrades as soon as he had wondered where they were. A crowd of greenish, wispy figures surrounded a small group of his master's followers. Odd, Snape mused. I wonder what device of Luka's this is. Hmm... He suddenly wished he could see Lupin and Tonks, but attempting to find them would be even more dangerous than not. We're all our own soldiers now, he realized. Let's hope this works out for the best. Or works at all.
Snape slid between the conjured ghosts and in between his Death Eater comrades. Luka was sitting at a small card table, sipping tea, while Voldemort, seated at the other end of the table, fumed.
"Come now," Luka was saying as he set down his teacup and picked up a deck of red cards. "Don't tell me you don't know how to play Hearts." Voldemort sat in silence as Luka dealt out four hands. "Get two of your best card players; we'll gamble." He picked up his hand and began to arrange his cards. "Voldemort, you know you would have better odds if you cooperated with me. I was going to gamble for your freedom." He sighed. "You there, Nott and Avery, come here."
"I will not play your game again," Voldemort hissed.
Luka rolled his eye and adjusted the patch over his empty eye socket. "But you've already lost," he explained. "What more do you have to lose?"
"Luka," a stern voice said from out of the circle of ghosts. Every head in the room turned towards the voice. Dumbledore stood where Lupin, Tonks, and Snape had all come from, but he stood alone. He hadn't brought anyone with him.
"Dumbledore!" Luka exclaimed in surprise. Not very enthusiastic surprise, but surprise none the less. "How kind of you to drop by. How 'bout a friendly game of hearts with Voldemort, Nott, Avery, and myself? Would you like some tea?" From the way Luka asked, Snape could only guess the tea would be poisoned.
"You're fun is ended," Dumbledore stated solemnly. "Now, I command you to exile these creatures." He gestured to the greenish ghosts. Snape backed away from the card table as Luka stood up quickly.
"I will not be ordered around, Dumbledore," he spat. Dumbledore raised an ancient eyebrow. "This will not be a day of double dealings."
"It already has been, Luka, in more ways than you can count." Dumbledore clapped his hands together and the ghosts vanished. Voldemort made to escape but was stopped by a grand sweep of Dumbledore's wand. "Fight with me or against me; I gave you that choice from the beginning."
Luka snarled. "You're outnumbered, Dumbledore," he whispered. "You can't win."
Dumbledore nodded. "You yourself told me when you first visited me at Hogwarts that this was not a game to be won, Luka," Dumbledore reminded the red haired lord quietly. "Indeed, I find myself agreeing with you ever more so."
Luka relaxed and sat back down at the card table. "So," he said, conjuring a cigar and lighting it with his wand, "what do you want?"
"I want you to release Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Erin Langhart, and Nymphadora Tonks to me now," the old headmaster said without hesitating. There was a moment as Snape moved towards Dumbledore, hoping to get to him before anything devastating happened.
"Ah, but I don't really want to, old man," Luka sniffed, putting his feet up on the card table and taking a deep puff of his cigar. Voldemort and his followers were forgotten, bound by anti-disapperation charms. Snape watched as Dumbledore's eyes suddenly locked on an invisible point in the air for a second. A small smile crept over the wizard's face. Either Tonks or Lupin was near the headmaster. Snape sped up, trying to get towards Dumbledore.
"There is no point in pretending that either of us is interested in peaceful negotiations when we both know that they will fall well short of my requests," Dumbledore commented.
Luka looked up brightly as he tapped his cigar on the side of the table. "I couldn't have said it better myself, old man," he laughed and crushed the cigar butt, standing up. "So, what type of duel do you want?"
"One solely between you and me," Dumbledore replied.
Luka shrugged. "I could manage that easily enough," he sighed. "What are the stakes?"
Dumbledore pulled his wand back out of his elegant maroon robes. "That you deliver the people I previously named to me when I win."
Luka's eyebrows raised and he bowed. "Seems fair to me," he growled, baring his white teeth. His wand appeared in his hand and he stood up. "To the death?"
Dumbledore bowed. "As you wish."
Erin watched the battle between the two great wizards grow more powerful and more deadly by the second. She could barely see, but she wasn't exactly sure why. Her head pounded from deep inside, and her nose wouldn't breath quite right. One eye was blurry and the other hardly open. The bright flashes she faintly saw hurt her eyes. She supposed, now that her guard had loosened his grip slightly, near-suffocation had those after effects.
Watching the battle from afar wasn't exactly what Erin wanted to be doing, but the idea of being strangled by her captor didn't hit very close to the mark either. Suddenly, she saw a figure appear from thin air, followed closely by the apperation of two others. Erin gaped in shock, seeing first Tonks, then Lupin, and finally Severus appear. Luka was incensed.
"Dumbledore!" he roared above the sound of their battle. "You said that this was to be a single battle! You filthy little liar!" Dumbledore bowed while blocking Luka's curse.
"And so I did," he replied agreeably. "Obviously, these people do not seek to attack you, but your followers." He glanced sternly at Tonks, Snape, and Lupin. "That, or they wish to leave." This was, by Dumbledore, the preferable choice.
A great wave of panic swept over Erin as Lupin stepped forward. "This battle is not yours alone, Dumbledore." Snape and Tonks joined his side, wands drawn. With a subtle command from Luka, seven of his black-robed followers drew away from the wall and sauntered slowly towards the three wizards. Erin's guard was one of the one's to leave. She was handed roughly to another follower.
The battle raged on, neither side gaining the advantage over the other, or at least in the case of Dumbledore versus Luka. Snape, Tonks, and Lupin's battle, however, seemed much more lopsided. Almost as soon as Luka's followers attacked, a bright curse hit Snape in the arm and blood frothed from the wound. Lupin fell to the floor soon afterward faltered. Two of the followers stumbled as Tonks' curse hit them, and were promptly finished off by Snape. Lupin, after struggling to heave himself up to his knees, sank to the floor and lay there motionless. Erin's mind raced, not comprehending anything but her immense feeling of absolute terror.
"Liam," she whispered, scared. "Liam, please help."
"I can't help you, Erin," she heard her new captor say. Erin wrenched her head around in surprise, and sure enough, Liam coldly stared back at her. "There's nothing I can do." Erin looked at him as though he were a completely different man.
Liam had changed. He no longer looked like the fun-loving brother she left a year ago, or even the one who had saved her the first time. His sandy-blond hair was light brown, an indication to Erin he hadn't seen sun in quite some time. Indeed, his skin was pale and thin looking; blue veins swam through his forehead. His eyes had lost their mischievous glint, and his face had lost its smile. It was gaunt now, like flesh on a skeleton, with a prickly, unshaved beard clinging to his chin.
"Liam?" she wondered, not wanting him to answer. She feared his response, for deep inside her she knew that he wasn't lying. It had been what she was afraid of from the beginning.
He stared at her, looking torn. "Times have changed, Erin," he said quickly. "I was young before, but I've found my purpose. No one can help you now." Erin was amazed at the dull, brainwashed tone he used. He can't really believe that, he conscious told her, playing off of memories of her jovial brother. He wouldn't be so pessimistic. But the look in his eyes told her that he was.
"Liam, you don't mean that," she implored, saddened by his attitude. "You don't know what you're saying."
Liam shook his head, face blank of emotion. "Yes, I do."
"But don't you remember when we were young?" she asked. For a brief moment, she was distracted by the battle behind her. Lupin still hadn't risen from the floor. She turned back to Liam, convinced that he would be able to save them as he had the previous time. "Remember The History of the Australian Law, by Johannes Tinker?" His face was still blank. "Don't you remember anything?"
"No, Erin, I don't," he said, voice absent of any feelings. "I don't recall those times." He smiled wildly, half insane. "You have this idea that the good guy will always win, the bad guy will see their reason, turn to their side, help save the day, and that justice will always be done to those who deserve it." His eyes narrowed. "Don't you understand that half the time the bad guys are more cunning than the good, and more often than not the good are the ones that change over. But stories don't sell when the good loose. We aren't told the truth. The truth we must make up for ourselves." He let the smile leave his face. "And that's almost like saying the truth doesn't exist."
"Liam, you don't believe that," Erin replied sternly, seeing him now not as her brother but as a monster. A realization came to her. Liam had started the fires. He had done what her dream had shown. She was the one who had been too blinded by memory to see it.
Liam had already continued. "I believe nothing," he agreed, "other than what I decide for myself to be true. In this game, the good guys won't win. Oh, no. This will be the first story written down where the ending isn't happy and the story doesn't turn out the way you want it to. You will die, Erin, and I shall not shed a tear at your passing." Erin tensed in his arms, hoping his foreshadowing wasn't the future. A sudden epiphany settled into Erin's mind.
He called this battle a story, but it wasn't written in stone. Destiny could be changed, she realized. This was not the end. If an idea can change a world, she wondered, then why couldn't a person change the future. It was like as Liam had said. '...what I decide for myself to be true.' A smile crept across Erin's face.
Liam noticed and raised his wand. "I can't help you anymore," he whispered. "Nor can you help anyone. This struggle ends here." He paused. "Stupefy!"
"Now, Luka, hand over Erin." Dumbledore pointed a long finger to where Erin lay motionless on the ground.
Luka slowly raised his eyebrows. "It was a battle to the death, Dumbledore," he scoffed. "What? Are you above death? Is it too low for you?"
Dumbledore inclined his head slightly. "I have come to the conclusion, Luka," he began, "after many years of studying, that death is not the worst thing possible. Indeed, sometimes life can be much worse."
Luka rolled his eye. "Well, since I'm alive, I will make my own bargain," he warned, "and it shall not be as you desire. Erin is the price I name for this draw that we seem to have gotten into the middle of, Dumbledore." Luka spat his name. "I would not push the subject or you will find yourself in smaller pieces than a can of diced tomatoes."
Dumbledore smile appreciatively, but his hand insisted. "I will fight you for her again," Dumbledore said quietly. Luka was unimpressed. "You cannot win her; she separated herself from you long ago." Erin looked particularly pitiful as she lay at the base of Liam's feet. Her black eye was beginning to swell, and a particularly nasty looking cut across her chin was caked with dried blood.
"But, just as I proved with Voldemort, you cannot beat me."
"Ah," Dumbledore chuckled, "this is so. But you must also come to see that I am not Voldemort, nor am I in any way similar to Voldemort. In this respect, you cannot say I shall not prevail." Luka was put out. "Now, give her to me." Dumbledore smiled kindly, blue eyes twinkling. From the dim light behind him, six Order members stepped into the scene. Two of them moved quickly to haul Lupin to his feet. They pulled him back into their ranks. "Now."
Luka grinned and waved his wand. A book appeared in his hand. "Hmm," he said to himself, flipping through the pages quickly as he glanced up now and again to view the scene before him, theatrically portraying a troubled look. "What to do, and which recipe to pick." He looked past Dumbledore to where all the Death Eaters were frozen to the ground by anti-disappearation spells. "Ah, ha! This is exactly what I need." He read the book closely, snickering to himself, then snapped the book closed. It vanished into the air. "For mass chaos, use not one wand, but two!" He smiled impishly as Dumbledore's brows knotted. "Accio wand!" Luka said forcefully and Erin's wand flew out from her pocket. "Now," he said, turning back to face Dumbledore, "let's get this show on the road. Finite incantatem!"
The spell binding the Death Eaters to the floor vanished. "Imperious!" Luka cried immediately after releasing the Death Eaters. Suddenly, they all turned on the Order members. Now the Order members were not just faced with the daunting task of battling Luka and his followers, but with fighting the Death Eaters as well. Luka laughed to see such chaos insue. "So it comes to it finally, my men," Luka whispered over his shoulder to his followers, "that we fight." They drew their wands in unison.
The Order members that had appeared, although Tonks was still confused as how they knew to come, were the best duelers in their ranks. Moody fought three Death Eaters simultaneously as Sturgis Podmore was able to keep one each of Luka and Voldemort's followers at bay. Kingsley Shackbolt, the tall auror that Erin had only met once before, bravely dueled two Death Eaters, although he wasn't on top of his game. Snape fought against one of Luka's men, deciding to fight against the mutual enemy rather than betray Voldemort. Lupin was woozily tottering around, blinking furiously and holding his head in his hand. Tonks readied herself as she saw two of Luka's followers point at her then come running, wands drawn.
Between ducking their curses and throwing mundane and magical ones at her attackers herself, Tonks kept a close eye on her friends. A raven haired witch named Arani Frazetta, Tonks had met her only once before in a top secret auror meeting, attacked a Death Eater while Bill Weasley subdued two of Luka's men. A graying man, whom Tonks thought had a remarkable resemblance to Alan Knars, took on a Luka follower and two Death Eaters. A bright red bolt of light came a little too close to Tonks' ear, and she refocused her attention back on her fight.
The older man, whom Tonks' had no recollection of, quickly knocked out his two opponents. He would have gladly disposed of them, but he knew that Dumbledore would only disapprove of those actions. He spun around, looking for a battle that was faring particularly poorly. Snape had stumbled, but it seemed that it was only to throw off his enemy. His attacker was floored quickly. Then a quick movement towards his right caught the old man's eyes. Luka had picked Erin's limp body up and was proceeding to edge his way towards the two great wooden doors.
"Get your bloody hands off her, Luka," the old man roared, sprinting towards the escape route. Luka dropped Erin in surprise and whirled around to face his challenger.
"So, you've come to face me, have you, Knars?" he wondered, smoothing his red hair back.
The man halted a few paces away, breathing hard. "How the bloody hell d'you get away from Dumbledore?" Alan gasped, speaking only out of the necessity to buy him time to catch his breath.
Luka shrugged as a callous grin spread across his face. "Voldemort seems fond of doing my work for me so I just helped him along." The mocking laughter was gone from his face in an instant. "Now move, Knars."
Alan shook his head. "You can't leave with her," he whispered.
Luka was unimpressed. He advanced menacingly. "What are you saying, Knars?" he asked in an offhand way. "Care to challenge me? Think you can come out of it alive? You were clever in slipping past my nets, you know." His wand was drawn and he searched for Erin's quickly. Unable to find it quickly, Luka abandoned his attempts and focused all his attention on the aged Beater. "Warning Dumbledore and Erin about what I was doing down here...I almost thought my plan would fail. But why, I asked myself, would I let someone as cowardly as yourself seek to ruin me? Ah, I wasn't planning on it. And, actually, I'm rather glad you showed up. You see...I already killed Gene Davids. The Harrows have been with me since the beginning, Cevin and Ode both." Alan's jaw dropped in surprise. "Yes, Cevin is rather good at pretending to be the bad guy pretending to be the good guy pretending to be the bad guy. He's rather gifted. Now I have Erin." Luka motioned to where Erin lay crumpled on the floor. "You too, eh, Knars? Plan to reunite the fad four? Harrow, Davids, Langhart, and Knars? Sounds like an okay plan to me." Luka leveled his wand. "Even if by reuniting, you all meet together in death."
For a second, the two men were locked in a spell/counter-spell duel. Luka's petrifying spell and Alan's protecting charm. They were both intent on keeping their spell stronger than the other; cold sweat dripped from Alan's forehead to the floor almost instantaneously. It almost seemed, for the smallest of time, that he was winning, but then he caught sight of Dumbledore walking briskly towards them. Alan's concentration began to slip. Just as Dumbledore raised his wand to send a spell Luka's way, Alan snapped.
Unbeknownst to Luka, Dumbledore, or Alan, Mad-eye Moody had also snuck up on the tied battle. At the same time Dumbledore had cast his spell, Moody had cast his. Both were sent towards Luka. They hit the Australian lord the moment Alan faltered. The curses sped through Luka, combined with Luka's own spell, and hit Alan in the chest. Luka and Alan collapsed on the floor. Dumbledore rushed over to Knars' side, Moody over to Luka's.
"He's dead," Moody growled, running a finger down his severely twisted nose as he peered into Luka's open eye.
Dumbledore nodded solemnly, and drew back from Alan. "Yes, Alan is too."
Moody's good eye turned towards the old Beater, but his magical one was trained on Luka. "I didn't know," Moody apologized, terribly sorry. It was odd to see so much compassion come from the grizzled auror, but one knew that Moody knew of Dumbledore's feelings towards the late Beater. "I know he was your friend."
Dumbledore nodded curtly. "What curse did you use?"
"Finite," Moody whispered, looking grim. "Why? Do you think we had a reverse spell combination? An RSC?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "No," he aged wizard said softly. "The combination of expelliarmus and finite wouldn't do that." He stood up and looked down at the two fallen men. "I just don't know how. Wake Erin." Moody moved over to Erin's side and Dumbledore turned back to the rest of the room.
The Death Eaters were gone, including Voldemort. They had vanished seconds after Luka had died, their anti-disapperation and imperious charms broken. Without the Death Eaters' unwilling support, Luka's followers had shrunk to their side of the great hall, and the Order members' had retreated to theirs. Both sides were too wasted to do anything more than light a candle. Only Ode and Cevin Harrow seemed to be remotely alive. The uncle and nephew pair quickly crossed the distance between them and where Dumbledore and Moody stood.
"What have you done?" Ode hissed. Behind Dumbledore Moody was easing Erin to her feet. Lupin, seeing Erin alive but maybe not so well, practically ran to where she was. He seemed in better physical and mental health than he had been previously. "You killed him."
Moody shook his head. "It was a combined effort," he corrected bluntly. Ode lashed out. Before either Dumbledore, Moody, or Lupin had the chance to react, Erin was roughly torn from Moody's hands and thrown into Cevin's.
"Hand Erin over to us," Dumbledore ordered, not rattled in the least. "You're leader is dead."
From beside his uncle, Cevin smiled and set Erin aside. "No," he sneered.
Dumbledore glanced quickly up to Cevin, blue eyes wary. "Cevin your plan was clever, I shall be lenient enough as to say that. You certainly had me fooled. Don't you think that game was enough."
"No, Dumbledore," Cevin whispered, stepping up so he was beside his uncle, "I beg to differ. You see, Luka promised me that when he was to die, I would rule in his place."
Dumbledore's eyes narrowed. "But you won't, will you?"
"No," Cevin replied, "I will." He stared evilly over to where Lupin stood dumbfounded. "And Erin won't be coming back for a long while, if at all. She's already home, what more could you want?"
"But you promised you were loyal to Dumbledore," Erin whined, pointing an accusatory finger at Cevin. She was completely awake, finally, and was dazedly glancing around the room. "Your parents, the Order..."
A wicked grin lit Cevin's face as he briefly turned to face Erin. "How many promises were broken today?" he asked her softly. "How many lies told, or double deals dealt? How many people died? Was there any reason behind it? How many people do you think you'll have to kill next time to win?" Erin stared at him in confusion. "Or can you?"
"But you fought alongside us." Erin wished that she hadn't woken up after Liam knocked her out. She wanted to go back to sleep. Her world had been flipped several times since she had awaken. "You were on the Welsh team. You were my friend."
Cevin gave her a mockingly sympathetic look. "That game today?" he began with a smile. "I convinced the Quidditch confederation as to where it should be played. I was the one that made sure that we would get into the World Cup."
Ode grinned. "You see, Erin Langhart," he whispered, "some of us have been planning this capture for quite a long time. Well, it wasn't exactly you we were planning on capturing, but still. That man who ran into Knars? I had him do that. He was under my Imperious the whole time. If we took out two Beaters, then when Cevin directed a Bludger towards you, no one could blame us in the least. That Bludger was a portkey. I had Samuel Wite turn it into a portkey right before it collided with you. Pity that your friends had to come as well. That was most unexpected." Erin gaped at Ode Harrow in stupefaction.
"I was only fighting for one side," Cevin continued. "And I have only been fighting for one cause this whole time. I do not vary my decisions. I can say that a lot of minds were twisted to bend to this plot." He inclined his head towards Erin once. "Yes. This was Luka's plot. He wanted to reunite his family."
Erin's eyes narrowed. "But...but he told me that he wanted to rule Aust..."
Cevin cut her off with a brisk wave of his hand. "After what you know of Luka, do you honestly think he would settle for ruling a material object? No, he wanted more than that. And a family is the most important thing anyone could ever have." Cevin sighed. "You were the last link in the long Langhart family chain not fighting for Luka. Now you have no choice. Pity Luka never saw his glory."
Lupin stared at him in shock and moved toward Erin. Cevin advanced on him quickly, sticking his wand in his neck. "If you try and take her you will die," he hissed. "If she leaves, all of you will die. It's her or every one from you're pathetic Order." Cevin looked at Dumbledore triumphantly.
"Let them go, Cevin," Erin said meekly, holding her bruised head in one hand. "I'll stay here."
Lupin broke through Cevin's hold and rushed over to her, looking lost. "You can't do that, Erin," he pleaded, taking her hands in his. "I can't let you stay here."
Erin stared into his fierce eyes, tears welling in her own. "I know," she whispered, releasing his hands and sweeping him into a tight hug. "I don't want to stay, but my life isn't worth all these peoples'." She pulled away, stroking his face with a gentle hand. "This was my destiny, Remus. I can't change it." Erin brushed a tear from his cheek with her thumb. "Don't make it harder than it already is."
"I won't let them do it," he sobbed silently, burying his face in her hair. "They can't take you away from me."
Erin stroked his hair soothingly. "Remus, I couldn't have guessed the outcome any better than anyone here," she whispered, holding back tears of her own. "Everything's been there to point to this." She wiped her own tears away and sniffed, chuckling. "Heck, I don't even know why I would wonder. In reality I always knew this would be my fate."
"It's not fair."
"Come on, Remus," she murmured. "Of course it's not. Do you expect anything in life to be fair?" She wrapped her arms around him, leaning against his chest and listened to his heart beat slowly. Her own heart was torn. "You know I'm not the strong one here. If you break down, then who knows what I'll be doing in a few seconds." He sniffed, laughing, then straightened. "Go on."
Lupin looked into her eyes, imploring her to change her mind, and seeing the stubborn loyalty, swept her into a bear hug, kissing her for the last time. "Good bye."
Erin watched her friends file solemnly out of the great hall, Dumbledore the last of which to leave. He turned to her as he left, giving her a sad, but entirely gratifying, bow. Just before he closed the door, Erin thought she saw him wink, but wasn't sure. She heard his wispy voice in her head speaking gently. In darkness there is always light, even when it's flame has been all but reduced to an ember. If only one remembers to turn feed the fire...to turn on the lights...The words faded in her mind, but filled Erin with determination to live through whatever Luka had planned for her. She stared at the heavy doors her friends had left through a few moments longer before turning to Cevin and Ode. I will be my light, she thought and smiled crookedly at her doom. Whatever hell gives, hell will answer. She laughed, although she saw nothing humorous about her situation. I'll give it my best shot, and so help me.